Chapter 157

Chapter 157: Deer Bone

A tremendous sound erupted within the dark church, followed by a violent explosion from within the bone shield wall. The intense shockwave shattered the bone shields and scattered them, engulfing the entire space inside the church.

The pews were overturned, items on the altar were blown away, bone fragments and stone chips scattered like bullets. The already heavily damaged main door was shattered by the air blast, allowing the church’s moonlight to pour in once more.

After the explosion, a gray dust filled the interior of the church. After the dust settled for a moment, Dorothy and Vania emerged from the hidden passage behind the altar.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

While coughing, Vania waved her hand to clear the dust in front of her. Stepping out of the secret passage, she stood on the ground covered with stone chips. Under the moonlight, she looked at the scene of devastation before her and couldn’t help but exclaim in astonishment.

“This… this is…”

“It’s the dynamite used for mining in the mountains. Since it’s for mining, it’s perfect for dealing with these two ‘stones.’ After all, they’re both used to blow up rocks.”

Behind Vania, Dorothy removed her mask and walked out, leaning on her cane, her nose and mouth wrapped in a white cloth as a makeshift mask.

“Dynamite… You used dynamite for an extraordinary battle? Miss Dorothyia…”

“Yes, look at the effect, isn’t it pretty good?” Dorothy said with a wave of her arm, smiling at the devastated church. Seeing the scene, Vania, as a clergy member, felt a bit guilty.

“Miss Dorothyia, won’t the Three Saints be displeased if we destroy the Radiance Church like this?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. We’re not doing this to fight an evil extraordinary being? The Three Saints would surely understand. Don’t worry too much.” Dorothy waved her hand at Vania. However, after hearing this, Vania still felt uneasy and approached the altar, folding her hands in silent prayer.

‘Lord… Please forgive us for destroying the altar… We did this because…’

Listening to the nun’s prayers, Dorothy pursed her lips, shook her head, and ignored it, then turned towards the center of the explosion.

There, the ground had been shattered. Not far from the epicenter, there lay a figure covered in dust, bloodied and missing an arm. This was one of the two Black Tiers. Dorothy tested it with the puppet ring and confirmed it was dead.

‘Huh… It worked well enough. Even though only half the amount was used, it couldn’t withstand it. Although they are extraordinary beings, they are still humans. Even with hardened skin, they can’t resist such a close-range explosion.’

Looking at the broken body on the ground, Dorothy thought about the purpose of bringing them into the church: to use the bomb to shatter their defenses.

Explosives could shatter the hardened skin of a Bone Craftsman, but if the quantity wasn’t large enough, they needed to be detonated at close range. The challenge was how to deliver the bomb to the enemy. First, Dorothy thought of using a puppet to carry the bomb forward, but if the Bone Artifacts intercepted them, that plan would fail. An explosion outside the bone shield wall would have limited impact.

Dorothy’s puppets were small birds, unable to carry heavy loads and thus incapable of aerial bombing.

Therefore, Dorothy needed a more clever method to deliver the bomb inside the enemy’s shield wall. This church was where she could accomplish that.

Using herself as bait to lure the enemies closer, she sealed the church space and extinguished the lights to create a dark environment, blocking their vision so they couldn’t see the puppet approaching. The puppet carrying the bomb used a Silent Sigil to eliminate noise and approach the enemy undetected, detonating the bomb in close proximity, unnoticed.

To be safe, Dorothy used only half the explosives as Plan A, keeping the other half as backup in case the first attempt failed.

However, looking at the current situation, a second attempt wouldn’t be necessary.

‘But… why is there only one corpse here? Where is the other person?’

Seeing the situation, Dorothy wondered, then her gaze swept around and finally spotted a figure lying some distance away.

This figure lay on the ground, several meters away from the explosion center, limbs intact, no obvious external injuries except for a layer of dust. A large piece of bone shield covered his body.

Seeing this figure, Dorothy tested it with the puppet ring and found it unresponsive, indicating the person was still alive.

‘He didn’t d*e!? Is he pretending to be dead to trick me?’

Seeing this, Dorothy immediately controlled a nearby barely functioning puppet to walk over and check the condition of the person on the ground.

After careful inspection, Dorothy found the person had fainted. His body was covered in fine cracks like stone fractures, with no significant external wounds. He was likely stunned by the explosion.

‘This guy seems to be the one controlling the bone blade. It looks like he was listening to the ground earlier. He must have sensed the vibration of the bomb and tried to escape. It seems he ran out of the shield wall just before the explosion, which absorbed part of the impact. With his tough skin, he survived but was knocked unconscious.’

Analyzing the man through the puppet, Dorothy thought, but then another idea came to her mind.

‘Maybe… this guy could serve another purpose…’

With this thought, Dorothy quickly controlled the puppet to tie up the still-living person and threw him into the secret passage behind the altar, locking him away and keeping him away from all bone artifacts.

After handling everything, Dorothy scanned the surroundings, ignoring Vania who was still kneeling in front of the broken altar, sincerely repenting. She slowly walked out of the church, looking ahead at the peaceful campus.

‘I wonder… how is the old man’s battle going?’

Just as Dorothy was thinking this, a distant tremor suddenly shook the ground, like an earthquake, causing the scattered stones in the church to rattle. Vania, who was praying, was startled, thinking it was divine punishment.

“What’s this…”

In the midst of the tremor, Dorothy steadied herself and looked ahead. Then, she saw a huge chasm open up in the wide open space due to the earthquake. From the chasm, a massive rock knight stepped forward, holding a giant rock sword, and with a powerful swing, cleaved through the bone monster pinned by three huge rock spears.

The bones scattered and ordinary human bones fell to the ground. The giant deer antler skull twisted and disappeared into the night sky.

—

‘Monitoring detected a sighting of a divine being, the partial remains of the Ancient Abyssal Deer. Some related information has been collected. Please avoid any additional mental damage beyond the collected data.’

Just as Dorothy felt something amiss, the huge deer skull roared to the sky and took off into the distance. Before it flew far, three massive rock spears suddenly burst from the ground, piercing it mid-air. The bone monster let out a mournful cry.

Then, from the chasm, a ten-meter-tall rock knight clad in plate armor stepped forward, wielding a giant rock sword, and with a mighty swing, cleaved the bone monster pinned by the rock spears. The shattered bones scattered, and the giant deer antler skull twisted and vanished into the night sky.